Berlin, es ist Zeit für Besuch Nummer vier. Potsdam – hallo zu Besuch Nummer eins.

Today was quite a packed day. We had a walking tour and a visit to the TV tower planned.

We went to get some food from the station for breakfast and then we sat and had breakfast and also fed the birds some of the croissants that we had bought. It was fun just watching them all flock to be fed. I managed to get a slow-mo video of me feeding them. Probably one of the best slow-mo videos I have taken. You can watch it below.

Once we had done our duty of feeding the wildlife, we headed to the meeting point for the tour. There were a lot of people here. I told Duncan that the Spanish tours are generally the busiest but it turns out our English tour was the busiest of them all. Our tour guide was called Ernestina and she was from Australia. At the start of the tour, she spent about 15/20 minutes explaining how the free tour works and how much the suggested donation would be. She made a point several times about not worrying if we couldn’t afford to pay her what she thinks she’s worth (which was €22). This bit I didn’t like. People have budgets and the tours are marketed as pay what you can afford.

We got on our way and as we were walking across the road the lights turned red and she got mad about our poor road safety. Oops. She also talked to me and Duncan about the queen passing and if we were in mourning and we were both like “Nah, not too fussed”. She didn’t want to overstep if we were.

We stopped by the Humboldt Forum/Palace and she talked about how much the people didn’t like it and didn’t think it should be there given the connotations it has in the history of being oppressive. We crossed the street (with a lecture about road safety) and stopped by the Altes museum and she told us a lot of this area was designed and built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. I had done a tour similar to this last year so was just enjoying the views more than the commentary if I’m honest.

We then went to Bebelplatz which was the site of the infamous book burning before the war. Here, around 20,000 books were burned and some of them the only copy of such. They have a memorial in the ground that shows the space those books would have taken. You start with books and you end with people. It is true. This is exactly what happened in the war.

We headed to Gendarmenmarkt and saw the two churches and the concert house on the square. The churches are pretty much identical and were built for people who migrated to Berlin and the Berlin folk too. One is a French cathedral, the other a German one.

After here, we headed to the site of the bunker where Hitler took his own life. The bunker is now a car park and there is nothing to say that Hitler died there – they didn’t want any kind of shrine or focal point for him. As we were there, one of the participants did the Nazi salute and asked if it was illegal in Germany and Ernestina had to tell her twice not to do it as it was an illegal sign. Some people just have no clue.

Checkpoint Charlie was our next stop and a break point too. I needed a drink and to powder my nose. Ernestina then talked about the tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie. A diplomat wanted to make a point of not showing his papers due to the agreement in place and the Russians weren’t too happy with this. There was a standoff for several hours with the tank guns pointed at each other. They finally backed off one by one and a crisis was averted. She also pointed out that the soldiers in the picture at the checkpoint weren’t called Charlie and that the checkpoint was named after the NATO phonetic alphabet letter C. There is a sign there telling you that you are entering/leaving the American sector and she said the sign was only put there in 2021. I am hoping she meant replaced as the sign is there in pictures and I saw this the times I have been here before.

The wall was our next stop and she told the story of the zipline escape of a family from the east. The father worked in the building and then he and his wife and his son hid in the toilets and then at night they all ziplined across the wall and not a shot was fired. The guards on duty were asked why they didn’t stop it and they said they thought it was a government test and that nobody would dare do anything. I am glad she told this story as it backed up the story told by the guide last year. She also pointed out that the Topography of Tear exhibition behind the wall was from the Nazi regime and not to be confused with the regime from when the wall went up.

Our final stops were the Memorial to the Murdered Jews and the Brandenburg Gate. I walked around the memorial as I had experienced it last year.

Once the tour was over, we went to see how we could visit the Bundestag and were directed to a ticket office. We decided to get tickets for Sunday as that was the only day we really had time. I took Duncan to see Hauptbahnhof because if its size and how impressive it was. We had some lunch and then headed to the TV Tower. We picked the right day as there wasn’t any rain. We got in and got our discounted tickets – thank you public transport card. We got a lift to the viewing platform. It was a pretty quick lift. It won’t do your vertigo any good that’s for sure. I decided to look up and take a video and you can see how quick we climb.

I had told Duncan of a schnitzel place Ken and I had found where we stayed when we visited and that it was next to the East Side Gallery and that we should go. It was a couple of stops on the S Bahn and a short walk from the station. We got there and it was no more. So sad. Instead, we looked at the East Side Gallery for about an hour or so.

We then headed to the wall memorial and had a walk around there before having some food and heading back for some much-needed sleep.

Total steps: 23,169

Total miles: 11.41

Below are some pictures from today

We had decided before the trip that we would go to Potsdam. I had been looking at it after a friend of mine said she had been and liked it. It looked like a cool place to visit. There was a Brandenburg Gate. A nice park by the station. A nice church across the river. Sanssoucci Park and Palace.

We took a slow walk (we had to because of my poor feet) across the river and to the island park and wandered around the park and headed across the river to where St. Nicholas’s church was. It was a nice square and the buildings were really nice.

We went into the church and it wasn’t as ornate as I was expecting it to be but it was still nice inside. After we were done here, we headed down the steps and had a look around the square before heading in the direction of the palace and the Brandenburg Gate. As we were heading that way, we saw a gold-plated staircase with some gold-plated baby statues on it. It was very weird. Something very weird about it.

We then walked up the main street passing several street art features on the way and then rounded the corner and came across the Brandenburg Gate and an ornamental clock too. On the square across from the gate, there was an African Market going on along with some music. We crossed the square and headed towards Sanssoucci Park and Palace.

Once inside the park, I left Duncan to carry on walking as my feet were crying and I decided to sit down. After about 20 minutes I carried on toward the palace. The park and gardens were very well kept and the palace looked huge from down the bottom. I decided not to walk up the steps.

We then headed to the main street to see what souvenirs we could find and I managed to find a magnet. Yay me. We decided to head towards the station to go back to Berlin. As we were heading back, we could see some kind of protest march but couldn’t figure out what.

Once we got back to Berlin, we went to Checkpoint Charlie and then to the Topography of Terror. Once we were done here, we headed to Kurfürstendamm so we could see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This is a church that was partly destroyed in the war and kept to show what happened. The outside is riddled with marks from bullets and other artillery.

I remembered that this was the site of the Christmas market terrorist attack in 2016 where a truck drove into a crowd and killed people. They have a permanent memorial to the victims here and it is good that they are remembered. You can read about this here. Across the street in June 2022 there was another attack. Very eerie that it was just across from the 2016 attack. You can read about that one here.

We headed to find a supermarket to get some stuff to bring back home to England. On the way to the Rewe, we found some root beer and then the Apple store. It was almost game over, but not quite.

Duncan went back to his hotel and I went back on the S Bahn to Potsdam so I could get a picture of the station sign that I forgot to get. Yes, dear reader, I will do that. I then headed back to the hostel so I could get some much-needed sleep.

Total steps: 25,609

Total miles: 12.46

Below are some Potsdam pictures from today

Below are some Berlin pictures from today

We decided on Friday that as we didn’t have a lot of time today and yesterday was spent in Potsdam that we would do the Bundestag today.

We got on the U Bahn and headed to Bundestag and sat for a few minutes until we had our spot for security to go into the building.

We got through the airport-style security without issue and had to wait for a guide to take us to the main doors of the building. Here, they have an airlock – they only open one set of doors at a time. We got through and then got in the lift to the roof. The views all around the city were pretty cool (obviously not as good as from the TV Tower). There was a nice cold breeze too.

I enjoyed just walking around the roof and taking in the views. I wanted to do this last time I was here but didn’t have the time (and didn’t look into it really). I am glad I got to do it finally. On top of the building is a glass dome designed by Norman Foster. It has a look of City Hall on the banks of the Thames in London.

Inside they have a brief history of Germany from the late 1800s to the wars and the reunification. There are also two spiral ramps to the top of the dome. The views from there were pretty cool too. You may get slightly dizzy walking up and down the ramps.

My advice is to do this if you get the chance. We headed back down and went to get some food and then headed on the train so I could show Duncan Potsdamer Platz. They have some sections of the wall still there. Duncan pointed out that he thought it was pebbles on the wall but it was discarded chewing gum. I am so glad I didn’t touch it. We had a walk around and came by what I think was the Canadian embassy. They had some bollards with motifs of Canadian coins atop them.

We sat on some seats by the Walk of Fame there until it was time to head to the airport. After I had left Duncan, I got on the S Bahn and headed to Spandau to see what was there. I saw a town hall and that was pretty much it. I then got on the S3 and headed to Erkner (just because) and then headed back to Alexanderplatz to pack and go to sleep.

As I was heading to the hostel, I could see three police cars and four fire engines and I was hoping they wouldn’t be for the hostel as I wanted to sleep so much. It turns out it was for the hotel next door – phew.

I packed and went to sleep ready for the early start I had to head home.

Total steps: 13,050

Total miles: 6.35

Below are some pictures from today